Boardroom pay doubled in five years

BOSSES of the biggest companies have seen their pay more than double over the last five years, it has emerged.

While their rewards have gone up by 168%, they have largely managed to hide the fact from shareholders.

Analysts said the Government was to blame for the way firms were covering up the huge increases because of its failure to insist that shareholders be told the facts simply.

The findings by the Independent Remuneration Solutions group will give added ammunition to investor groups and unions which complain that executive pay rises are at many times the rate of inflation.

The IRS survey, based on the annual reports of 800 firms, said the average pay package for the chief executive of a big company had reached £2.6m a year.

An average big company - counted as one worth £3bn - put the pay of its chief executive up by 16% last year alone. But the biggest rewards lay in the extras. Bonuses were up by 25%, share options, incentive plans and bonus share plans by 23% and performance pay by 22%.

Report author Cliff Weight said pay consultants were constantly devising complex ways of paying executives which made it hard for outsiders to work out how much they were earning.